The Execution of Major Andre

John Evangelist Walsh

In his winning novelistic style, John Evangelist Walsh tells the story of one of the most fascinating figures of the American Revolution, Major John Andre, the gentleman-spy hanged for his ill-fated conspiracy with Benedict Arnold to crush the American battle for independence. A handsome, well-bred poet, playwright, actor, and partygoer, Andre was the dilettante spymaster for Britain with a vast Loyalist network. He blundered into rebel hands carrying Arnold's plans for an attack on West Point and was hanged at Tappan, New York on October 2, 1780, under Washington's orders. At the execution, Americans wept openly for the popular officer sacrificed by the British to insure Benedict Arnold's safety. His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey. Walsh brings Andre and his role in American history to light in a book that readers of popular history will embrace.